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Sunday, September 8, 2013

Flying X quilt block

Flying X

May 9, 1933-"Flying X" One of Simplest of All Quilt Blocks was the title of Nancy Cabot's column introducing the Flying X quilt block which she says dates back to 1800 in Connecticut. She felt is was ideal for a boy's room. "A smart combination of colors will contribute much to it's effectiveness" she wrote.

It really is a very simple block. It's made from 5 quarter square triangle blocks and 4 plain squares of fabric.

Here's a good tutorial for making quarter square triangle blocks. Using this method, I started out with 3 1/2" squares to make my 2" finished size blocks. It makes them a little oversized so you can trim them to 2 1/2" to get a 2" finished size.

You need only need 5 quarter square triangles blocks but you end up making 6 with this method. Just use the 5 best ones! You also need four 2 1/2" squares of background fabric to alternate with the quarter square triangle blocks.

A version of the Flying X block can be found in Electric Quilt's BlockBase program as #1675b.

This antique block from the early 1900's is in the Spencer Museum of Art.